Eurovision 2011 - Number 25 - Eldrine - "One More Day"
The last time that 1TV in Georgia held a national final, it had resulted in selecting We Don’t Wanna Put In and the subsequent withdrawal from Eurovision in Moscow when it was deemed the song was ‘of a political or a similar nature’. In 2010, they’d internally selected, so this year was the first time in three years the Georgian public would be able to see their chosen performers on the Eurovision stage.
Except, of course, there was another wrinkle. The winners of the national final were the band Eldrine or ƎLDRINE as they prefer. They hadn’t expected to win going into the final. Their song, One More Day was in English and was written by band members DJ BE$$ (aka Beso Tsikhelashvili) and Miken (aka Mikheil Chelidze) along with another DJ, DJ Rock. It’s a demanding nu metal song, with a full intensity vocal that requires commitment as well as control. This has clean vocals and screams being delivered by the same singer as well as a rap.
On the day of the national final, the nineteenth of February 2011, lead singer Tamar Vadachkoria was ill. Her voice was not what it should be and they doubted she would be able to perform. But she did.
That’s a fighting performance from someone with a vocal problem. You can hear that especially in the final chorus, she’s not able to continue much more and loses her volume and singing ability. The whole thing sounds painful for her vocal chords.
Nevertheless it’s a great performance of a big song from a country that was increasingly enjoying turning their amps up to eleven and blowing the windows out. The vote was fifty/fifty jury/televote, but I’m not sure that the results have been published. The only thing that is known is who finished second and third and who won.
Somehow Eldrine won. Whether that was a public sympathy vote or whether they loved the song despite Tamar’s clear issues I don’t know. Eurovision was going to be enjoying some metal this year. Shortly after their victory Tamar said that it was “unbelievable” and that the band thought that “only a miracle would help because of her sickness.”
On February the twenty-eighth, nine days after they won, Eldrine announced that Tamar had left the band and that their new lead singer at Eurovision would be Sophio Toroshelidze. I don’t know if this was purely down to Tamar’s illness and poor recovery prospects, or if the reported contractual issues were genuine. If it was something like nodules, then there’s no way they would have recovered in the three months before Eurovision.
In Düsseldorf, the rest of the band were all present and correct, including keyboardist Eldrine (aka Tamar Shekiladze) after whom the band appear to be named. For singer Tamar that must have been disappointing, although it did mean she didn’t have to wear the iconic, Barbara Dex award-winning green and black dress. Sophio did tremendously well in her stead though, powering through the song. She went on to stay with the band subsequently.
With all the turmoil pre-Eurovision, Georgia were not high up in the odds. In the semi-finals Eldrine were drawn between two gentle, quiet, acoustic guitar strumming ballads, right in the middle of the running order. This must have come as something of a shock to the system. Perhaps that metal blast was what Eurovision wanted. The band qualified in sixth place, well-clear of the dog-fight taking place for the final qualification spot.
Qualifying is one thing. How were they going to do when everyone else was there? It was a year in which there weren’t any clear favourites. What favoured songs there had been before the contest seemed to be under-performing. Georgia might have a chance. Oh, they’ve been drawn to be the final song in the running order. Well it’s certainly one way to close the show.
That Eldrine finished ninth, equaling the previous year’s result for Georgia is astonishing. It’s still Georgia’s best result at Eurovision to this day. It also set a precedent for Georgia. They were the country that weren’t afraid to be different, to show off the variety in their music scene. They may not have much in the way of resources, but they do have a thriving musical scene.
The band went on to lose Eldrine the keyboardist, but keep their new singer Sophio and to release their first album Till the End in 2013. They have also released a few singles, such as this one in 2015, Addiction
